Well-known fountain devices installed in places like parks are roughly divided into two kinds based on the technique used to spout water from a nozzle, namely those which supplies water by a pressure generated by driving a feeding pump and those which utilizes compressed air generated by a compressor or similar devices. In the former, the system structure is relatively simple, but the starting or stopping of the spouting water tends to be delayed due to a time gap between driving of the feeding pump and actual delivering of water at a predetermined pressure. In the latter, the system structure tends to be complex, but is advantageous in that the starting or stopping of the spouting water is quick.
The fountain device using the latter technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 has a water charge tank which is connected to a nozzle for spouting water and in which water is stored, an air charge tank which is connected to the water charge tank via an open/close valve and in which high pressure air is charged, and a compressor for supplying high pressure air to the air charge tank. In the fountain device, the high pressure air in the air charge tank is supplied into the water charge tank by opening the open/close valve so that the water stored in the water charge tank is discharged by the air pressure from the nozzle.
However, in the aforementioned conventional fountain device, a time delay occurs between the supply of the high pressure air to the water charge tank by opening the open/close valve and the spouting of water from the nozzle. For this reason, there is a limitation on speeding up the start of the spouting water. Further, since the height or size of the spouting water is controlled by the amount of water supplied to the water charge tank, it is difficult to promptly change the height or size of the spouting water. Moreover, when the heights of spouting water from a plurality of nozzles are changed all together, the heights tend to vary.
In the case of fountain devices with which people enjoy only the movement of spouting water, such as an angular change or rotary motion of the spouting water, such time delay as mentioned earlier does not pose notable problems. Meanwhile, as disclosed in Patent Document 2, fountain devices synchronized with music or lights have been recently developed to increase the entertainment aspect of fountains. In order to better synchronize spouting water and other elements such as music and lights, faster starting or stopping of the spouting water or faster changing of the height or size of the spouting water is very important, which still pose a major problem to be solved for conventional fountain devices.